Southern Bay Window Caboose

[2-8-1]

I'm having a little trouble locating a HO scale Southern Railway Bay Window caboose. I just missed a nice Athearn on ebay, and there is also a kit on there now.

Anyone familiar with the quality of the Athearn kits?

Anyone know of a good online shop that deals in quality, reasonably priced models that would have Southern cars, or is this something I'm better off buying unlettered and making myself?

Thanks

-Aaron

 

[diburning]

The thing with the Athearn Bay Window caboose is that it is a generic model painted for many different roads.

With the Walthers version, they try to be true to the prototype, but they still may be a little off.

Wright Trak (google it) makes high quality craftsman kits. I have two "holy grail" cabooses that come in kit form only (One is the Southern rebuilt Central of Georgia Bay Window Caboose, which Norfolk southern still owns and operates as a research car. The other is a Missouri Pacific short bay window caboose. It's a bay window caboose that's less caboose, and more platform. It has huge decks. You can throw a party on it and still have room for the grill)

 

[ICG/SOU]

Wright Track makes the most accurate one I've seen. It's a resin kit.

The Athearn one is okay, but the placement of the windows is off. If that doesn't bother you (and it doesn't bother me much), then Athearn is where it's at (until Walthers makes one).

Out of the box, the Athearn is easy to build. Improvements would be painting the porch red, the stairs yellow, and add some metal wheelsets and Kadee couplers. I'd prefer not to have a running board/roofwalk on mine, as well as ladders, since later cabooses I've seen didn't have them.

Orange Grove Hobby Shop, Orange Grove, MS, Link to contact information here, had a couple of the last run of RTR Athearn Southern cabooses in stock (though I bought one of them).

Hub City Hobby, in Hattiesburg, MS, had the last run of Athearn blue box kits with a Southern caboose (X591, I think) as recently as November, when I was there last. They also have some Southern stuff.

I've taken to building some of my own (using Accurail 50' boxcars or MDC/Roundhouse undecs off of ebay), as growing up, Southern 50' boxcars were as ubiquitous as leaves on a tree. Unfortunately, we don't see much in the way of Southern as other railroads now. You can still find new the Athearn 40' modernized boxcars, the Walthers 7000cuft woodchip hopper and SIECO pulpwood flat, the 50' waffle boxes from Exactrail, 100tn coal hoppers from Bowser, and perhaps something else here and there.

 

[2-8-1]

Thanks for the replies guys. On a humorous note, I googled "Southern Caboose Bay Window" to search for prototype pics to build my own, and this thread was linked in the top 5.

 

[claddius]

The SHRA has the Wrighttrak bay window caboose

This thread is old, so I don't know if you're still looking, and I'm not sure if you can still get them, but the Southern Railway Historical Society has a link to order the WrightTRAK Southern bay window caboose in their GRAB store area. It has both the "as delivered" version and the "rebuilt" (circa 1969) version. www.srha.net

 

[diburning]

you mean http://www.srha.net

Those models are made by wright Trak and can be bought for the same price straight from the manufacturer. http://www.wrighttrak.com

 

[claddius]

Thanks for correcting the typo in my link.

Their page is old, but I think the SRHA is selling the caboose for $50 plus shipping. At the wrightTRAK store, it's $54.95. That's why I posted the message, because it was a little cheaper.

 

[Cjcrescent]

Other than the Wright Trak models, the only correct SRR bay window cabooses are in brass. The Athearn is a copy of an SP caboose, and if a paint job makes it close enough for you then good.

I think it was Larry Puckett who had an article in MR several years back about converting one to a better copy of a SRR caboose. You have to remove the strip of plastic containing the toolboxes, cut away the steps, and file a steeper angle on the top of the bay windows. Then remove the center dividing strip to make the window in the bay one big window. The end platforms are filled in with some strip wood, and the sides are filled in with a styrene strip where the steps were.

Replace the steps with Funaro & Camerlengo SRR 2 step caboose steps or fabricate your own. The last construction step is the hardest, which is to replace the end railings with a fabricated SRR "squirrel cage". Then paint and decal. The conversion is really not hard and makes a passable caboose without paying the price of brass or what I believe the over priced Wright Trak model.